Your Right to Know

Ohio’s new reading guarantee has put more than half of Columbus third-graders at risk of being
held back next year if they don’t improve their score on the state reading test.

The new law also has triggered a community-wide effort to improve student literacy, a
collaboration of teachers and administrators, community volunteers, public libraries and others
helping students meet the challenge.

“It’s all hands on deck,” Alison Circle, chief customer experience officer for Columbus
Metropolitan Libraries, said today during a lunchtime panel at the Columbus Metropolitan Club.

“This whole third-grade reading thing has ignited our efforts in a way and collaboration with
the schools...we have been doing all kinds of things on a pace we’ve never done before.”

Circle announced that beginning next fall, the libraries would bring books each month to
third-grade classrooms in the Columbus School District, allowing students to check them out and
return them the next month. The program is similar to one the libraries piloted this year in
Groveport-Madison schools.

The libraries also have hired 20 people who will work after school at are libraries to
encourage and help students with reading.

“We are changing our approach on how we serve and deal with customers,” she said. “We are
removing barriers to serving these kids. If you can’t get to us, we get to you.”

Besides helping visitors borrow books and a hosting a long-running summer reading program,
the Columbus libraries are tutoring students, instructing parents and taking books on the road to
extend their reach.

Columbus schools have taken a similar approach, expanding their efforts beyond the classroom,
said Sandee Donald, the district’s director of reading, language arts and social studies.

The district has hosted community literacy academies drawing hundreds of families, enlisted
more than 600 “reading buddies” to work one-on-one with students, and put 5,000 books on school
buses to give students more time to read.

“I’ve seen renewed interest in literacy not only by students, but staff and the community,”
Donald said, adding that, “our parents are concerned. They want to do whatever they can.”

Statewide, more than 1 in 3 third graders failed the state reading test last fall, putting
them at risk of being held back next fall if they don’t improve their scores. The students have two
more shots at passing – spring assessments that start later this month and a summer test given in
July.

Under the new state law, dubbed the Third Grade Reading Guarantee, students failing the
reading test must be retained starting this school year, with some exceptions for youngsters with
special needs, who speak English as a second language, or who pass an alternative exam.

Students ready for other fourth-grade subjects will be allowed to take those classes while
getting 90 minutes of reading instruction per day. They also will be able to move up to fourth
grade at midyear if they are deemed ready.

Despite initial angst and concern about potentially holding thousands of students back,
Donald said educators have embraced the requirements.

“We’ve taken the challenge and made it an opportunity,” Donald said. “It’s the law. We had to
take the challenge and make it into a positive.”